“Good luck. Not that you’ll need it.” She gave him a wave as he walked through the front door.
“Thanks.” He swallowed and she saw that flash of vulnerability again. She knew he’d try to hide it at school, but it was there.
“Love you,” she told him, her heart full and aching.
“Love you, too.” And with that, he was gone.
Cam pulled his car up outside the house and stared at it through the windshield. It had to be the right one. It looked exactly like the listing Brian had sent him, telling him he’d rented it for the next two months.
Thank god for his assistant. It was a shame Brian wouldn’t be staying with him in Hartson’s Creek, but there really wasn’t much for him to do here. Instead, he’d be working on a few things for Cam at his house in Boston, and he’d also be helping one of Cam’s teammates, whose own assistant had broken their wrist.
Climbing out of the car, Cam was pleasantly surprised by the warmth in the air. It was harvest time in Hartson’s Creek. As a kid, he’d loved the way the smell of corn wafted through the air. Loved going back to school and the football season starting. He’d forgotten that feeling, having had lived in the city for so long. Things like crops and farms and high school seemed like another life.
His brother’s life.
“Hey, you made it.” The smiling face of Cam’s brother, Tanner appeared at the front door. He walked down the steps and gave Cam’s car an admiring glance. “Damn, this is a beauty. Was your drive okay?”
Cam blinked, because he hadn’t expected to see his younger brother here. But then realization passed over him. Tanner owned a lot of property in Hartson’s Creek – no doubt this house was one of his.
“Why didn’t Brian tell me this was your place?” Cam asked, more to himself than his brother.
“No idea.” Tanner shrugged. “Maybe he thought you’d try to haggle me out of money. Come inside, let me show you around.”
The inside of the house was just as beautiful and sleek as the outside. “This place was only built a year ago,” Tanner told him, as he took him into the kitchen. “You see that view?” he asked, pointing out of the window at the creek. The water glistened in the sun as it bubbled and flowed toward the river. On the other side was a copse of mature trees, their leaves green now, but no doubt they would turn gold and red in a few weeks. “Isn’t it something?”
“Yeah,” Cam agreed. “It’s something.
Cam stared out of the window for a moment, letting the peace soak into his skin. This was what he’d come home for, after all. A chance to relax, to think. To work out what the hell he was going to do with his life. Yet the creek was giving him no answers at all.
“You okay?” Tanner asked him. “All this stuff happening. It must have hit you hard. I know when I moved back here, after selling my business in New York, it took some getting used to.”
“I’d forgotten how quiet it is here.”
“You’ve visited enough. You must remember.”
Cam winced at the mention of his memory. He worried that it was permanently affected. “Yeah, but I’m always surrounded by you guys. And in Boston I’m always at work, with the rest of the team, or watching plays. There’s not a lot of time for silence.”
“If you stay here for a while, you’ll have more than enough of it.” Tanner opened a cupboard door, showing him the inside. “Brian sent all your kitchen equipment down. Well actually, he sent everything he couldn’t rent for you down. It’s all been unpacked by the movers. So you can settle in and relax. And you know where I am if anything goes wrong.”
“Do you give this treatment to all your renters?” Cam asked him, grinning.
“Nope. Just family.” Tanner hit him on the shoulder and winced at the hardness of his muscles. “It’s good to have you home, man.”
“Just for a while,” Cam reminded him.
“Yeah,” Tanner agreed. “Just for a while.”
He was lucky to have such a nice place to stay while he thought about his next move. And it was good to see his youngest brother, too.
But now Tanner was back at work – as were all of Cam’s brothers – and he was bouncing off the walls like a damn pinball. This thinking game was making him crazy.
Grabbing his keys, Cam walked out of the house and looked at his car parked in the driveway.
Of all the things he owned, the Audi coupe was the one thing that made him happy. Like most of his teammates, he’d always been a motorhead. Their cars were the one things they had control over. Their little oasis of calm in the craziness of NFL life. It was where they’d sit and think about plays they should have made, arguments they’d had with girlfriends or wives, or where they’d switch on their top-of-the range stereos and blast out their music to chase the thoughts from their minds.
Cam had bought this car as a gift to himself when he’d signed his latest contract. Sure, he’d been offered a discount, but it had still cost him more than he’d ever spent on a car before. But damn, he loved it.
Running his hands over the metallic blue exterior, Cam opened the driver’s door and climbed in. He’d never get tired of the cream leather upholstery and blue detailing that matched the paint. If you asked, he could tell you that it went from zero to sixty in three point eight seconds, and on a private open road, it could hit speeds of two hundred miles per hour.